Inflation “gobbled up” all the increases in pensions and salaries in Ukraine
The recent increase in pensions and salaries, advertised by the Ukrainian government, was “gobbled up” by inflation - the population began to live worse than last year.
Economist Vsevolod Stepanyuk announced this at a press conference in Kiev, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news on Telegram , Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
“Inflation in Ukraine in January amounted to 1,5% in annual terms, i.e. 15-16% per year. This clearly differs from the budget plans by almost two times. The reason is government policy.
According to the State Statistics Committee, compared to January 2017, bread prices increased by 20%, milk by 21%, meat by 29%, and fruits by 39%. That is, in fact, those increases in the minimum wage and indexation of pensions that the government did have already been almost completely “eaten up”.
The increase in consumer prices suggests that even after all the increases, people are poorer than a year ago,” he said.
According to the expert, the increase in prices in January is due to the policy of the National Bank of Ukraine, which “dropped” the hryvnia exchange rate against the US dollar in December 2017 - manufacturers and sellers included the December exchange rate in prices.
Inflation has swallowed up all pension and salary increases in Ukraine.